Solicitors predict rugby brain injury claims will impact sports at all levels
Nearly 300 former rugby union players have initiated a High Court claim, which a legal expert believes will significantly impact the sport, regardless of the outcome.
The players, including members of England’s 2003 World Cup-winning squad like Steve Thompson, Phil Vickery, and Mark Regan, who are seeking damages for irreversible neurological impairments, including early onset dementia and probable chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), believed to be caused by playing rugby.
They argue that they were unaware of the potential brain injuries associated with the sport, and the rugby authorities failed to adequately protect them.
The litigation, initiated in 2020, targets World Rugby, England’s Rugby Football Union, and the Welsh Rugby Union, with the cases anticipated to go to trial no earlier than the end of 2024.
Lee Hart, partner and personal injury team manager at Clarke Willmott, said: “The challenge in these cases is proving the causal link between the alleged breach of duty of care and the injury/loss. Comparisons are often made with United States where more than 4,500 former American Football players brought claims for damages against the NFL for neurological diseases as a result of repeated contacts to the head. A settlement was approved by the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court in 2016 for around $765 million.
“Claims involving large numbers of claimants against sports associations in this country are rare but given the level of control exercised by those bodies over the conditions in which professional sport is played, there remains a chance of establishing that a duty of care was owed by the governing bodies to participants. Whatever the outcome, whether a settlement can be reached between the parties, or the claims are determined at trial, it will have a huge impact on the sport of rugby in schools, at amateur and professional levels.”
